Arthur Conan Doyle

Name: The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

Summary

“The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations”, published in 1900, is a work by Arthur Conan Doyle. It explores elements such as South Africa, Transvaal and Great Britain.

Quotes from The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (Arthur Conan Doyle)

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ Our foreign critics, with their misapprehension of the British colonial system, can never realise that whether the four-coloured flag of the Transvaal or the Union Jack of a self-governing colony waved over the gold mines would not make the difference of one shilling to the revenue of Great Britain. The Transvaal as a British province would have its own legislature, its own revenue, its own expenditure, and its own tariff against the mother country, as well as against the rest of the world, and England be none the richer for the change. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ It is difficult to imagine how a state of unrest and insecurity, to say nothing of a state of war, can ever be to the advantage of capital, and surely it is obvious that if some arch-schemer were using the grievances of the Uitlanders for his own ends the best way to checkmate him would be to remove those grievances. The suspicion, however, did exist among those who like to ignore the obvious and magnify the remote, and throughout the negotiations the hand of Great Britain was weakened, as her adversary had doubtless calculated that it would be, by an earnest but fussy and faddy minority. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ On the face of it, therefore, Great Britain had every reason to avoid so formidable a task as the conquest of the South African Republic. At the best she had nothing to gain, and at the worst she had an immense deal to lose. There was no room for ambition or aggression. It was a case of shirking or fulfilling a most arduous duty.
There could be no question of a plot for the annexation of the Transvaal. In a free country the Government cannot move in advance of public opinion, and public opinion is influenced by and reflected in the newspapers. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ They are mortal, they can be destroyed. . .and once destroyed they can never be reconstructed in the same shape.' The long-enduring patience of Great Britain was beginning to show signs of giving way.
In the meantime a fresh dispatch had arrived from the Transvaal which offered as an alternative proposal to the joint commission that the Boer Government should grant the franchise proposals of Sir Alfred Milner on condition that Great Britain withdrew or dropped her claim to a suzerainty, agreed to arbitration, and promised never again to interfere in the internal affairs of the republic. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ On June 12th Sir Alfred Milner received a deputation at Cape Town and reviewed the situation. 'The principle of equality of races was,' he said, essential for South Africa. The one State where inequality existed kept all the others in a fever. Our policy was one not of aggression, but of singular patience, which could not, however, lapse into indifference.' Two days later Kruger addressed the Raad. 'The other side had not conceded one tittle, and I could not give more. God has always stood by us. I do not want war, but I will not give more away. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ Men of many nations but of a similar type showed their martial faces in the Boer towns. The condottieri of Europe were as ready as ever to sell their blood for gold, and nobly in the end did they fulfill their share of the bargain. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ But a great wrong was being done, and all that was asked was the minimum change which would set it right, and restore equality between the white races in Africa. 'Let Kruger only be liberal in the extension of the franchise,' said the paper which is most representative of the sanest British opinion, 'and he will find that the power of the republic will become not weaker, but infinitely more secure. Let him once give the majority of the resident males of full age the full vote, and he will have given the republic a stability and power which nothing else can. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ The British Government and the British people do not desire any direct authority in South Africa. Their one supreme interest is that the various States there should live in concord and prosperity, and that there should be no need for the presence of a British redcoat within the whole great peninsula. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ One may examine the files of the press during all the months of negotiations and never find one reputable opinion in favour of such a course, nor did one in society ever meet an advocate of such a measure. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ A section of the press, not in the Transvaal only, preaches openly and constantly the doctrine of a republic embracing all South Africa, and supports it by menacing references to the armaments of the Transvaal, its alliance with the Orange Free State, and the active sympathy which, in case of war, it would receive from a section of her Majesty's subjects. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ The fact is that the case of the Transvaal stands alone, that such a condition of things has never been known, and that no previous precedent can apply to it, save the general rule that a minority of white men cannot continue indefinitely to tax and govern a majority. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ They were going from bad to worse before the raid. We were on the verge of war before the raid, and the Transvaal was on the verge of revolution. The effect of the raid has been to give the policy of leaving things alone a new lease of life, and with the old consequences.
'The spectacle of thousands of British subjects kept permanently in the position of helots, constantly chafing under undoubted grievances, and calling vainly to her Majesty's Government for redress, does steadily undermine the influence and reputation of Great Britain within the Queen's dominions. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ Although our independence has once been taken away, God has restored it.' He spoke with sincerity no doubt, but it is hard to hear God invoked with such confidence for the system which encouraged the liquor traffic to the natives, and bred the most corrupt set of officials that the modern world has seen. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ Kruger offered a seven years' franchise, coupled with numerous conditions which whittled down its value very much, promised five members out of thirty-one to represent a majority of the male population, and added a provision that all differences should be subject to arbitration by foreign powers, a condition which is incompatible with any claim to suzerainty. The proposals of each were impossible to the other, and early in June Sir Alfred Milner was back in Cape Town and President Kruger in Pretoria, with nothing settled except the extreme difficulty of a settlement. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (1900)

“ Sentiment inclines to the smaller nation, but reason and justice are all on the side of England.
A long delay followed upon the proposal of the Secretary of the Colonies. No reply was forthcoming from Pretoria. But on all sides there came evidence that those preparations for war which had been quietly going on even before the Jameson raid were now being hurriedly perfected. For so small a State enormous sums were being spent upon military equipment. ”

Arthur Conan Doyle

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Quotes from The Great Boer War — Chapter 3 The Negotiations (Arthur Conan Doyle)

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